The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.

Lord of the Morning, I have come for you!

Elan Morin Tedronai, Ishamael, to Lews Therin Telamon, the Dragon

Yes, Betrayer of Hope. So have men named me, just as they named you Dragon, but unlike you I embrace the name. They gave me the name to revile me, but I will yet make them kneel and worship it.

Elan Morin Tedronai to Lews Therin Telamon

For what else you have done, there can be no forgiveness, Betrayer, but for Ilyena's death I will destroy you beyond anything your master can repair.

Lews Therin Telamon to Elan Morin Tedronai

Remember, you fool! Remember your futile attack on Great Lord of the Dark! Remember his counterstroke! Remember! Even now the Hundred Companions are tearing the world apart, and every day a hundred men more join them. What hand slew Ilyena Sunhair, Kinslayer? Not mine. Not mine. What hand struck down every life that bore a drop of your blood, everyone who loved you, everyone you loved? Not mine, Kinslayer. Not mine. Remember, and know the price of opposing Shai'tan!

Elan Morin Tedronai to Lews Therin Telamon

In wars, boy, fools kill other fools for foolish causes.

Thom Merrilin

Weep for Manetheren. Weep for what is lost forever.

Moiraine Damodred

What is already woven cannot be undone. It will not make the trees grow again for you to bring the building down on our heads.

Moiraine Damodred to Loial

Think if you want to stay alive. Fear will kill you if you don't control it.

Elyas Machera

You'll use it [Perrin's axe], boy, and as long as you hate using it, you would use it more wisely than most men would. Wait. If ever you don't hate it any longer, then will be the time to throw it as far as you can and run the other way.

Elyas Machera

Nobody tells us how to be men. We just are.

Perrin Aybara

Loial, didn't you say there was no wind in the Ways?

Rand al'Thor to Loial

Till shade is gone, till water is gone, into the Shadow with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath, to spit into Sightblinder's eye on the Last Day.

Aiel Oath

The best lie is often one too ridiculous to be taken for a lie.

Morgase Trakand

The fact that the price must be paid is proof it is worth paying.

al'Lan Mandragoran

The rose petal floats on water. The kingfisher flashes above the pond. Life and beauty swirl in the midst of death.

al'Lan Mandragoran

"What a strange thing to say," Egwene said. "Why do they use it like that? Peace."
"When you have never known a thing except to dream," Lan replied, heeling Mandarb forward, "it becomes more than a talisman."

al'Lan Mandragoran and Egwene al'Vere

I will never shame you. I will hate the man you choose because he is not me, and love him if he makes you smile. No woman deserves the sure knowledge of widow's black as her brideprice, you least of all.

al'Lan Mandragoran to Nynaeve al'Meara

The leaf lives its appointed time, and does not struggle against the wind that carries it away. The leaf does no harm, and finally falls to nourish new leaves. So it should be with all men. And women.

Aram

Teach him how you will, a pig will never play the flute.

Thom Merrilin

Take life as it comes. Run when you have to, fight when you must, rest when you can.

Elyas Machera

An Aes Sedai never lies, but the truth she speaks, may not be the truth you think you hear.

In the Borderlands, sheepherder, if a man has the raising of a child, that child is his, and none can say different.

al'Lan Mandragoran to Rand al'Thor

Love is an odd thing. As odd a thing as there is.

al'Lan Mandragoran

"Here, southlander, you can't quit while you are winning."
"Better than when I'm losing."

Man in Fal Dara and Matrim Cauthon

Soon comes the day all shall be free. Even you, and even me. Soon comes the day all shall die. Surely you, but never I.

Padan Fain

It's never over, al'Thor. The battle's never done.

Padan Fain to Rand al'Thor

There is an old saying here in the Borderlands: "Better to have one woman on your side than ten men."

al'Lan Mandragoran

There is one rule, above all others, for a man. Whatever comes, face it on your feet.

al'Lan Mandragoran

Always plan for the worst, that way all your surprises will be pleasant ones.

Verin Mathwin

Bring your lightnings, Aes Sedai. I will dance with them.

Urien to Verin Mathwin

Perhaps they do [deserve to die] and perhaps he[Rand al'Thor] would. But men often mistake killing and revenge for justice. They seldom have the stomach for justice.

Nynaeve al'Meara

An Aes Sedai’s gift is bait for a fish.

Matrim Cauthon

A pig painted gold is still a pig.

Matrim Cauthon

My mother always told me the best way to learn to deal with a man was to learn to ride a mule. She said they have about equal brains most of the time. Sometimes the mule is smarter.

Egwene al'Vere

Men! When you cannot win an argument, you either run away or resort to force.

Egwene al'Vere

I may be a fool, but I intend to be a live fool.

Matrim Cauthon

A man who will not die to save a woman is no man.

Shienaran saying

All men dream. But I know dreams for dreams. This is reality.

al'Lan Mandragoran

A shaping stone, to make us; a testing ground to prove our worth; and a punishment for the sin.

Aiel on the Three Fold Land

Jump in a hole without looking, and there’ll be a snake in it every time.

Hurin

You break your neck, and I’ll see it mended just so I can break it again.

Nynaeve al'Meara

"Humankind is being swept away everywhere. Nations fail and vanish. Darkfriends are everywhere, and none of these southlanders seem to notice or care. We fight to hold the Borderlands, to keep them safe in their houses, and every year, despite all we can do, the Blight advances. And these southlanders think Trollocs are myths, and Myrddraal a gleeman's tale." He frowned and shook his head. "It seemed the only way. We would be destroyed for nothing, defending people who do not even know, or care. It seemed logical. Why should we be destroyed for them, when we could make our own peace? Better the Shadow, I thought, than useless oblivion, like Caralain, or Hardan, or … It seemed so logical, then."

Do you know how to unite the people behind you, Child Carridin? The quickest way? Loose a lion - a rabid lion - in the streets. And when panic grips the people, once it has turned their bowels to water, calmly tell them you will deal with it. Then you kill it, and order them to hang the carcass up where everyone can see. Before they have time to think, you give another order, and it will be obeyed. And if you continue to give orders, they will continue to obey, for you will be the one who saved them, and who better to lead?

Pedron Niall

Tonight you will eat fish. Tomorrow, you may die.

Moiraine Damodred to Faile Bashere

Should and would build no bridges.

Lini

...but who can know the heart of a man? Not even he himself, I suspect. A man is the easiest animal to put on a leash, and the hardest to keep leashed. Even when he chooses it himself.

Siuan Sanche

A flapping tongue has killed more men than sudden storms ever did.

Siuan Sanche

Most of those we call heroes only did what they had to do.

Siuan Sanche

Men always seem to refuse to admit they are sick until they’re sick enough to make twice as much work for women. Then they claim they’re well too soon, with the same result.

Siuan Sanche

When there are fish heads and blood in the water, you don’t need to see the silverpike to know they are there.

Siuan Sanche

Trust is as slippery as a basket of eels sometimes.

Siuan Sanche

Once you decide to gut a fish, there’s no use waiting till it rots.

Siuan Sanche

One pretty woman means fun at the dance. Two pretty women mean trouble in the house. Three pretty women mean run for the hills.

Matrim Cauthon

If a woman does need a hero, she needs him today, not tomorrow.

Egwene al'Vere

Death comes for us all. We can only choose how to face it when it comes.

Aviendha

I have heard it said that a man caught between his wife and a Wise One often wishes for a dozen old enemies to fight instead. A man caught between a wife and three Wise Ones, and the wife a Wise One herself, must consider trying to slay Sightblinder.

Aviendha

"A bloody hero. Thom, if I ever look like acting the hero again, you kick me."
"And what would you have done differently?"
"Just kick me!"

Matrim Cauthon and Thom Merrilin

Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this. Men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.

Thom Merrilin

Better ten days of love than years of regretting.

Min Farshaw

Men! Too blind to see what a stone could see, and too stubborn to be trusted to think for themselves.

Min Farshaw

To anger an Aes Sedai is to put your head in a hornets’ nest.

Loial

The arrogance of men never ceases to amaze me. You all think everything has to do with you, and every woman has to desire you.

Min Farshaw

To lead is neither to push or pull.

Leane Sharif

Nimble finger and nimble wits will take you a good deal further than a sword and muscles. Sharp eyes help as well, but fortunately, I have these things.

Faile Bashere

It is better to be the hammer than the nail.

Egwene al'Vere

Men fight when they should run, and fools fight when they should run. But I had no need to say it twice.

Faile Bashere

I came to bloody rescue you. Burn me if I expected to be greeted as if I had come to steal a pie.

Are you deaf as well as blind, woman? I’m not a carpet to walk over, and I distinctly heard myself speak. If I pinch your bottom, you can slap my face, but until I do, I expect a civil word for a civil word!

Matrim Cauthon to Berelain

There's no time for winking at the men when you're busy bailing the boat.

Siuan Sanche

Surprising what you can dig out of books if you read long enough, isn't it?

Rand al'Thor

Are you so eager to destroy us?

Amys to Rand al'Thor

Rand al’Thor is a mule-headed, stone-willed fool of a...a...a man!

Moiraine Damodred

You read too much and understand too little.

Moiraine Damodred

Prophecy is most dangerous when you try to make it happen... The Pattern weaves itself around you, but when you try to weave it, even you cannot hold it.

Moiraine Damodred

If I knew everything, Matrim, I would not need to ask questions.

Moiraine Damodred to Matrim Cauthon

The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, and we are only the thread of the Pattern.

Moiraine Damodred

On the heights, the paths are paved with daggers.

Seanchan saying

No wine for me. Strange enough things happen when my head is clear. I want to know the difference.

Matrim Cauthon

A Warder once told me Trollocs call the Aiel Waste 'the Dying Ground.' I mean to make them give that name to the Two Rivers.

Perrin Aybara

You have made a place in my heart where I thought there was no room for anything else. You have made flowers grow where I cultivated dust and stones. Remember this, on this journey you insist on making. If you die, I will not survive you long.

al'Lan Mandragoran to Nynaeve al'Meara

As well you try to understand the sun, Perrin. It simply is, and it is not to be understood. You cannot live without it, but it exacts a price. So with women.

Gaul

A Myrddraal has less cunning than a woman, and a Trolloc fights with more honor. And a goat has more sense.

Gaul

For the young, death is an enemy they wish to try their strength against. For those of us a little older, she is an old friend, an old lover, but one we are not eager to meet again soon.

Rhuarc

You have to understand, child. Everyone wants someone in their life, someone who cares for them, someone they can care for. Even a queen.

Thom Merrilin

Rand is the one who is supposed to go mad. And here I am, talking to an axe!

Perrin Aybara

Before I knew what was happening, I had a fistful of spears around my neck like a collar. I could have shaved myself with one sneeze.

Mat recalling the Maiden's Kiss

You could weave silk from pig bristles before you could make a man anything but a man.

Lini

A weeping woman is a bucket with no bottom.

Lini

It is better to guide people than try to hammer them into a line.

Morgase Trakand

Whatever you can do, Lews Therin, I can do. And better.

Lanfear

I always get what I want in the end. And I think I want...ornamental ironwork. For the windows of my bedchamber.

Berelain sur Paendrag Tanreal of House Paeron

I do read sometimes.

Matrim Cauthon

Do not trouble trouble till trouble troubles you.

A saying in Maule, Tear

A ship is alive, and he is like a man, with a true man’s heart. Treat him well and care for him properly, and he will fight for you against the worst sea. He will fight to keep you alive even after the sea has long since given him his own deathstroke. Neglect him, though, ignore the small warnings he gives of danger, and he will drown you in a flat sea beneath a cloudless sky.

Jorin din Jubai White Wing

Humankind is made for uncertainty, struggle, choice and change.

Amys

If you plan for the worst, all surprises are pleasant.

Gaul

I’ll not have you bleeding to death on me. That would be just like you, to die and leave me the work of burying you. You have no consideration.

Faile Bashere

Courage to strengthen, fire to blind, music to daze, iron to bind.

Snakes and Foxes Game

Nothing like a little dance with Trollocs to ready you for sleep. Right Aviendha?

Mat Cauthon

Wanting won’t make a stone cheese. But he still smells like cheese to me.

Perrin Aybara on Lord Luc

Light! Two [wives]! Oh, burn me! He’s the luckiest man in the world or the biggest fool since creation.

Mat Cauthon

You were never meant for greatness, Asmodean, only to follow those who are great.

Fall in love with a man, and you end up doing laundry, even if it does belong to another man.

Min Farshaw

Sleep well and wake, Rand al'Thor.

Aviendha

It seems to me that kings — and queens — can be fools when they forget what they are and act like who they are, but they’re worse when they only remember what they are and forget who.

Nynaeve al'Meara

If you fell head first into a pigsty, you'd try to convince everybody you did it on purpose.

Egwene al'Vere to Nynaeve al'Meara

Schemes within schemes. The Great Serpent is a good sign for you Aes Sedai, I think. Someday you may swallow yourselves by accident.

Melaine

I know how to take a man out of his miseries. Give him a swift kick, or else get him drunk and find him a pr-...

Thom Merrilin to Elayne Trakand

Absently he fingered the neat slice across the shoulder of his coat. Good shooting, at a moving target only half seen through the trees. He could have admired it more had he not been the target.

Matrim Cauthon

He strains to hear a whisper who refuses to hear a shout.

Two Rivers saying

And as for words of wisdom, the first she had heard out of him had been a fervent promise never to throw a rock at anyone again, offered after she had paddled his young backside for it.

Nynaeve al'Meara about Rand al'Thor

"I once saw a man hanging from a cliff," he said slowly. "The brink was crumbling beneath his fingers, and the only thing near enough to grasp was a tuft of grass, a few long blades with roots barely clinging to the rock. The only chance he had of climbing back up on the cliff. So he grabbed it." His abrupt chuckle held no mirth. "He had to know it would pull free."

Asmodean to Rand al'Thor

Mat was caught up in it now. He more than merely liked gambling, and battle was a gamble to make dicing in taverns a thing for children and toothless invalids. Lives were the stake here, yours and other men's, men who were not even there. Make the wrong wager, a foolish bet, and cities died, or whole nations. Natael's somber music was fit accompaniment. At the same time, this was a game that set the blood racing.

Matrim Cauthon

A woman's flaming rights are whatever she flaming says they are." Uno laughed. "That's what women in Shienar say, anyway.

Uno Nomesta

Oh, I do remember you. The one with the fla- the mouth. Ragan thought you could skin and butcher a blo- bull at ten paces with your tongue. Chaena and Nangu thought fifty.

Uno Nomesta to Nynaeve al'Meara

That was all he ever really wanted from women; a smile, a dance, a kiss, and to be remembered fondly.

Matrim Cauthon

The Creator made women to please the eye and trouble the mind.

Two Rivers saying

Take what you want, and pay for it.

Cairhien saying

We are alike in many ways, you and I. There is a darkness in us. Darkness, pain, death. They radiate from us. If ever you love a woman, Rand, leave her and let her find another. It will be the best gift you can give her.

al'Lan Mandragoran to Rand al'Thor

We all have our limits. And we set them further out than we have any right.

Lews Therin Telamon

The more women there are about, the softer a wise man steps."

Arad Doman saying

A man is a man, on a throne or in a pigsty.

Lini

A shoat squealing under a fence just attracts the fox, when it should be trying to run.

Lini

I have seen a tough man break when I sent for a basket of figs and some mice.

Juilin Sandar

Not thinking about a thorn doesn’t make it hurt your foot less.

Lini

A fool puts her hand into a hollow tree without finding out what’s inside first.

Lini

If you don’t look for snakes, you cannot complain when one bites you.

Lini

A gnarled old branch dulls the blade that severs a sapling.

Lini

When the honey’s out of the comb, there’s no putting it back.

Lini

Better to face the bear than run from it.

Lini

A fool puts a burr under the saddle before she rides.

Lini

At my age, if I make it up, it’s still an old saying.

Lini

Men always believe they are in control of everything around them. When they find out they are not, they think they have failed, instead of learning a simple truth women already know.

Aviendha

When a woman says she will obey you, of her own will, it is time to sleep lightly and watch your back.

Asmodean

I lead no armies, Warder. I command nothing save myself, and not always that.

Asmodean to al'Lan Mandragoran

I trust you like a brother. Until the day you betray me. You have a parole for what you’ve done, in return for your teaching, and a better bargain than you deserve, but the day you turn against me, I will tear it up and bury it with you.

Rand al'Thor to Asmodean

All he wanted from life was some good wine, a game of dice, and a pretty girl or three

Matrim Cauthon

In my day, girls jumped when a Wise One said jump, and continued jumping until they were told to stop. As I am still alive it is still my day. Need I make myself clearer?

Sorilea

Better to try understanding the sun than a woman.

Thom Merrilin

Even a queen stubs her toe, but a wise woman watches the path.

Lini

If you must mount the gallows, give a jest to the crowd, a coin to the hangman, and make the drop with a smile on your lips.

Birgitte Silverbow

Never kiss a girl whose brothers have knife scars.

Matrim Cauthon

Never gamble without knowing a back way out.

Matrim Cauthon

I can rest when I’m dead.

Rand al'Thor

Have you finished sharing your wisdom, Jasin Natael?

Aviendha to Jasin Natael

The louder a man tells you he’s honest, the harder you must hold onto your purse.

Two Rivers saying

The fox often offers the duck its pond.

Two Rivers saying

Waiting turns men into bears in a barn, and women into cats in a sack.

Lini

"Wish" and "want" trip the feet, but "is" makes the path smoother.

Lini

I will see you tonight. Or I will see you dead.

Rand al'Thor to Asmodean

He recalled countering Sammael's last move with something particulary nasty, but he could not pull the memory to the surface. Not balefire. "Mustn't use that. Threatens the fabric of the Pattern. Not even for Ilyena? I would burn the world and use my soul for tinder to hear her laugh again."'

Lews Therin Telamon

It was easier to trip a fool than to knock him down.

Moiraine Damodred

I’m no lord. I’ve more respect for myself than that.

Matrim Cauthon

Stopping a man from what he wants to do is like taking a sweet from a child. Sometimes you have to do it, but sometimes it just isn’t worth the trouble.

Egwene al'Vere

I’m a gambler, a farmboy, and I’m here to take command of your bloody army!

Matrim Cauthon

If you are not mine, then you are dead.

Lanfear

Take what you can have. Rejoice in what you can save, and do not mourn your losses too long.

Lews Therin Telamon

There’s no point letting honey age too long before you eat it.

Lini

It’s too late to change your mind after you’ve jumped off the cliff.

Lini

I have made up my mind, young Tallanvor, and I do not expect you to question me when I have done so.

The lions sing and the hills take flight.
The moon by day, and the sun by night.
Blind woman, deaf man, jackdaw fool.
Let the Lord of Chaos rule.

Chant from a children’s game heard in Great Arvalon, the Fourth Age

THE CHOSEN DWINDLE, DEMANDRED. THE WEAK FALL AWAY. WHO BETRAYS ME SHALL DIE THE FINAL DEATH. ASMODEAN, TWISTED BY HIS WEAKNESS. RAHVIN DEAD IN HIS PRIDE. HE SERVED WELL, YET EVEN I CANNOT SAVE HIM FROM BALEFIRE. EVEN I CANNOT STEP OUTSIDE OF TIME... DONE BY MY ANCIENT ENEMY, THE ONE CALLED DRAGON. WOULD YOU UNLEASH THE BALEFIRE IN MY SERVICE, DEMANDRED?

The Dark One

An Aiel, Hal, can hide in a fold in the ground you wouldn’t even stumble over.

Gawyn Trakand

A slow horse does not always reach the end of the journey.

Lini

The best way to apologize to a man is to trip him in a secluded part of the garden.

Breane

You want to know what the Great Lord told me? Very well. But it stays here, held close. Since Sammael chose to stay away, he learns nothing. Nor do the others, whether alive or dead. The first part of the Great Lord’s message was simple. ‘Let the Lord of Chaos rule.’ His words, exact.

Demandred

Clutch the bramble and you will be pricked.

Rand al'Thor

The only way to live is to die. I must die. I deserve only death.

Lews Therin Telamon

Victors write history. Had I taken the Stone of Tear, history would have shown I was born on the slopes of Dragonmount, of a woman never touched by a man, and that the heavens opened up in radiance to herald my coming. The sort of thing they say about you, now.

Mazrim Taim

Do you have any idea how long it takes to dig graves for twenty-three oak trees?

Davram Bashere

I am going to defeat them, Taim. All of them. They think they can tear everything down. It’s always tearing down, never building up! I’m going to build something, leave something behind. Whatever happens, I will do that! I’ll defeat the Dark One. And cleanse saidin, so men don’t have to fear going mad, and the world doesn’t have to fear men channeling. I’ll . . .

Rand al'Thor to Mazrim Taim

Men believe the worst easily, and women believe it hides something still darker.

Two Rivers saying

A woman’s eyes cut deeper than a knife.

Two Rivers saying

What happened with the pond? Surely the water is the point of the story.

Somara

Dance with her, and she will forgive much; dance well, and she will forgive anything.

Matrim Cauthon

Dance well with a woman, and she’s halfway yours.

Matrim Cauthon

No man should have another man's voice in his head.

Rand al'Thor

It was a gelding, and it would not have hurt me. Horses like me. I am not a little boy: I am nine. And my name is Olver, not boy.

Olver to Matrim Cauthon

An arrow may not be a shocklance, yet it can still kill you.

Sammael to Graendal

What can’t be changed must be endured.

Lini

The pike does not ask the frog’s permission before dining.

Lini

We are all fools sometimes, child, yet a wise woman learns to limit how often. Since you seem to have finished breakfast, I suggest you rid yourself of that mug and find something to do before you find yourself in hot water instead. Have you ever considered cutting your hair short? No matter. Off with you.

Lelaine Akashi to Nynaeve al'Meara

What is too absurd to believe is believed because it is too absurd to be a lie.

Sebban Balwer

If I could find a way to escape my destiny, do I deserve to?

Rand al'Thor

We hear less, Davram Bashere, but perhaps sometimes we see more.

Bael to Davram Bashere

Pride fills me. I am sick with the pride that destroyed me.

Lews Therin Telamon

A man must know when to retreat from a woman, but a wise man knows that sometimes he must stand and face her.

Davram Bashere

There was a price to be paid for any decision he made. There was a price for who he was. Other people paid it.

Rand al'Thor

I am the Dragon Reborn. Denying won’t change it. Wishing won’t change it. I’m not the man you knew back in Emond’s Field. Do you understand now? Do you?

Rand al'Thor

First things first; take care of what can be done now before worrying too long over what might never be.

Verin Mathwin

The gall of the man. The utter gall! Detaining us! Restricting us!

Alanna Mosvani, referring to Rand al'Thor

A man without trust might as well be dead.

Lews Therin Telamon

The best way to avoid trouble is to make sure no one wants to trouble you.

Birgitte Trahelion

You must surrender before you can guide.

Theodrin Dabei to Nynaeve al'Meara

If wishes were wings, pigs would fly.

Old saying in Randland

What you need isn’t always what you want.

Lini

A man's dreams are a maze even he cannot know.

Bair

And she learned to guard her tongue better. I will wager she did. When we left them, she was still yelping and trying to get those scarlet puffers out of her dress. A scarlet puffer looks much like a red adder if your eye is dull like a wetlander’s, but it is not poisonous. It does wriggle when confined, though.

Bair, referring to Carlinya

The woman learns nothing. The Aes Sedai we served in the Age of Legends could not have been such fools.

Amys, referring to Carlinya

How people see you first is what they hold hardest in their minds. It is the way of the world. You can step down from a throne, and even if you behave like a farmer in a pigsty, some part in each of them will remember that you did descend from a throne. But if they see only a young man first, a country man, they will resent him stepping up to his throne later, whatever his right, whatever his power

Moiraine Damodred

The Wheel of Time and the wheel of a man's life turn alike without pity or mercy.

Lews Therin Telamon

Take this message back to Sammael. Every death he has caused since waking, I lay at his feet and call due. Every murder he has ever done or caused, I lay at his feet and call due. He escaped justice in the Rorn M’doi, and at Nol Caimaine, and Sohadra . . . " More of Lews Therin’s memories, but the pain of what had been done there, the agony of what Lews Therin’s eyes had seen, burned across the Void as if Rand’s. " . . . But I will see justice done now. Tell him, no truce with the Forsaken. No truce with the Shadow.

Rand al'Thor to Sammael's messenger

You never escape the traps you spin yourself. Only a greater power can break a power, and then you're trapped again. Trapped forever so you cannot die.

Lews Therin Telamon

What you want is what you cannot have. What you cannot have is what you want.

Lews Therin Telamon

The yellowfly is almost too small to see, but if you leave its egg in your skin, you will lose an arm or leg before it hatches - if it does not kill you.

Rhuarc

Death rides on my shoulder, death walks in my footsteps. I am death.

Lews Therin Telamon

The wheel of a man's life. No mercy. No pity.

Lews Therin Telamon

If it hurts too much, make it hurt someone else instead.

Lews Therin Telamon

Nothing ever goes as you expect. Expect nothing, and you will not be surprised. Expect nothing. Hope for nothing. Nothing.

Lews Therin Telamon

Break the seals. Break the seals, and end it. Let me die forever.

Lews Therin Telamon

When a young woman's cheeks redden for no apparent reason, there is usually a man involved.

Sorilea to Egwene al'Vere

You do talk nonsense sometimes.

Egwene al'Vere to Rand al'Thor

A cat for a hat, or a hat for a cat. But nothing for nothing.

Taren Ferry saying

You put your cat in your hat and stuff it down your breeches, Rand al’Thor.

Egwene al'Vere

You cannot please everyone. You cannot soothe everyone.

Moiraine Damodred to Rand al'Thor

The great and powerful Car’a’carn gave his honor to Far Dareis Mai to carry. If the mighty Car’a’carn dies in ambush while the Maidens protect him, Far Dareis Mai has no honor left. If the all-conquering Car’a’carn does not care, perhaps Enaila is right. Perhaps the omnipotent Car’a’carn is a willful boy who should be held by the hand lest he run over a cliff because he will not look.

Sulin to Rand al'Thor

You trouble me so, Rand al’Thor. Light, sometimes I think the Creator made you just to trouble me.

Aviendha to Rand al'Thor

What I love I destroy. What I destroy, I love.

Lews Therin Telamon

Women do not become exhausted, they only exhaust others.

Ogier saying

The road ahead of you is long, dark, and, I very much fear, bloodstained. I also very much fear that you will take us all down that road. But you must live to reach the end of it.

Elder Haman to Rand al'Thor

As my Lord says, my Lord's leg is not a side of beef. Thank you, my Lord, for instructing me.

Nerim to Matrim Cauthon

Let most men have a finger, and they will have the whole hand before you know. Let a clan chief have a finger, and he will have the entire arm.

Sorilea

When you wish for so long that you could hear something, and then suddenly, with no warning, you do, is like a lightning strike and rain on parched ground at the same time. You're stunned, but you cannot hear enough.

Gawyn Trakand

Never prod at a woman unless you must. She will kill you faster than a man and for less reason, even if she weeps over it after.

Lews Therin Telamon

You are a very lucky man, Dimir Faral. You are going to watch your friends hang. Then you'll be given a horse, and you will go tell Pedron Niall that one day I will hang him too for what happened here.

Rand al'Thor

Let the dead rest, and care for the living.

Old saying in Randland

A crafty enemy will set a weak ambush you are meant to break through. Confident because you have dealt with the threat, your guard relaxed, you walk into the second, stronger ambush.

Caldin

Young men can be impetuous, young men can be rush, young men can be fools, but the Car'a'carn cannot let himself be a young man.

Nandera to Rand al'Thor

By the look of you, Nynaeve, I could almost think you were angry, but I know you have such a sweet disposition people ask you to dabble your fingers in their tea.

Thom Merrilin to Nynaeve al'Meara

Caution once forgotten could be forgotten once too often.

Nynaeve al'Meara

If you try putting a woman on a horse when she does not want to go, she may put a knife in your ribs.

Aviendha to Matrim Cauthon

We are going to tickle some Aes Sedai under the chin, rescue a mule, and put a snip-nosed girl on the Lion Throne. Oh, yes. That's Aviendha. Don't look at her crosswise, or she'll try to cut your throat and probably slit her own by mistake.

Mat Cauthon

We are always more afraid than we wish to be, but we can always be braver than we expect.

Sorilea

Men always say they didn't mean it that way. You would think they spoke a different language.

Nynaeve al'Meara

If the world is ending, a woman will want time to fix her hair. If the world's ending, a woman will take time to to tell a man something he's done wrong.

Matrim Cauthon

Now. When the poor blind fool they’ve chosen out for their Amyrlin gets here, I will do the talking. She can’t be very bright, or they’d never have been able to shove her into the job. Amyrlin Seat for a bloody village in the middle of bloody nowhere. You keep your mouths shut and curtsy for all you’re worth, and I’ll pull your bacon off the coals again.

Matrim Cauthon to Egwene al'Vere, Elayne Trakand and Nynaeve al'Meara

There are things worth fighting for.

Rand al'Thor

You cannot tell a man he has the power to make the earth shake, then expect him to walk small.

Mazrim Taim

If you pursue two hares, both will escape you.

Old saying in Randland

Often you don't know whether a woman is friend, enemy or lover until it is too late. Sometimes, she is all three.

Thom Merrilin

Cheer the bull, or cheer the bear; cheer both, and you will be trampled and eaten.

Old saying in Randland

An Aes Sedai is ten women in one skin.

Tairen saying

I will use anybody I must. You said it yourself; I am who I am. And I'm using myself up, Perrin, because I have to. Just like I'll use anybody I have to. We don't have a choice anymore. Not me, not you, not anybody!

Rand al'Thor

I always thought the stole weighed about as much as three good men. The Amyrlin has few easy decisions to make, and fewer where she can be sure. Do what you must, and pay the price if you’re wrong. Sometimes if you are right, too.

Siuan Sanche to Egwene al'Vere

Honor? Maybe they're letting him sleep on silk, but a prisoner is still a prisoner.

Perrin Aybara about Rand al'Thor

The only man completely at peace is a man without a navel.

Old saying in Randland

They will pay. I am the Lord of the Morning.

Lews Therin Telamon

Sevanna wants my head, Taim. Apparently, she thought she could take it today. I mean to let her know her mistake. I told you to make weapons, Taim. Show me just how deadly they are. Disperse the Shaido. Break them.

Rand al'Thor to Mazrim Taim

Asha'man, kill!

Mazrim Taim to the Asha'man at the battle of Dumai's Wells

I forget nothing, Aes Sedai. I said six could come, but I count nine. I said you would be on an equal footing with the Tower emissaries, and for bringing nine, you will be. They are on their knees, Aes Sedai. Kneel!

Rand al'Thor

Kneel and swear to the Lord Dragon, or you will be knelt.

Mazrim Taim, after the battle of Dumai's Wells

On a day of fire and blood, a tattered banner waved above Dumai's wells, bearing the ancient symbol of Aes Sedai. On a day of fire and blood and the one power, as prophecy had suggested, the unstained tower, broken, bent knee to the forgotten sign. The first nine Aes Sedai swore fealty to the Dragon Reborn, and the world was changed forever.

Lan told me once that Malkier lives so long as one man wears the hadori in pledge that he will fight the Shadow, so long as one woman wears the ki'sain in pledge that she will send her sons to fight the shadow. I wear the ki'sain, Master Aldragoran. My husband wears the hadori. So do you. Will Lan Mandragoran ride to the last battle alone?

Nynaeve ti al'Meara Mandragoran

A man should never give promises in bed.

Rand al'Thor

Mourn if you must. But mourn on the march to Tarmon Gai'don.

Logain Ablar

A beautiful battle is one you don't have to fight.

Mat Cauthon

The boy was dead eager, which could soon lead to plain dead.

Mat, about Olver

To fight the raven you may make alliance with the serpent until the battle is done.

Byar, Children of the Light

There is some delight in ale and wine
And some in girls with ankles fine
But my delight, yes always mine
Is to dance with Jak O’ the Shadows

We will toss the dice however they fall
And snuggle the girls be they short or tall
Then follow lord Mat whenever he calls
To dance with Jak O’ the Shadows.

Band of the Red Hand's rendition of the song Dance With the Jak O' Shadows

Besides, you must remember the old saying. Let the lord of chaos rule.

Ravens and crows. Rats. Mists and clouds. Insects and corruption. Strange events and odd occurences The ordinary twisted and strange. Wonders. The dead are beginning to walk and some see them. Others do not, but more and more, we all fear the night. These have been our days. They rain upon us beneath a dead sky, crushing us with their fury, until as one, we beg, "Let it begin."

Journal of the Unknown Scholar, entry for the Feast of Freia, 1000 NE

"The end is near," Moridin said. "The Wheel has groaned its final rotation, the clock has lost its spring, the serpent heaves its final gasps. He must know pain of heart. He must know frustration, and he must know anguish. Bring these to him. And you will be rewarded."

Moridin, Nae'blis, speaking to the Forsaken Graendal

Sometimes, a wife must do what her husband cannot.

Lady Faile ni Bashere t'Aybara, wife of Lord Perrin Goldeneyes

Masema. That had been his name. He'd earned his sword on his fifteenth birthday. His father had been so proud. It's over, then, he thought, unable to keep his eyes open. He closed them, falling as if through an endless void. Did I do well, Father, or did I fail?

Masema, Prophet of the Dragon Reborn

"The Amyrlin understands the most complex of creeds and debates," Egwene said, quoting from memory. "Yet in the end, she is the servant of all, even the lowest of laborers."

Egwene al'Vere, quoting Balladare Arandaille, the first Amyrlin raised from the Brown Ajah

How was he to cause war, as the prophecies say he must? How was he to break the nations and bind them to him? How could he 'slay his people with the sword of peace' or 'bind the nine moons to serve him' if he was locked away? Do the prophecies say that he will be 'unfettered'? Do they not speak of the 'chaos of his passing'? How can anything pass at all if he is kept in chains?

"I dare the truth, Elaida," Egwene said quietly. "you are a coward and a tyrant. I'd name you Darkfriend as well, but I suspect that the Dark One would perhaps be embarrassed to associate with you."

Egwene al'Vere, Rebel Amyrlin Seat, captive of the White Tower

Women are like goats. It's like . . . Well, reasoning with a woman is like sitting down to a friendly game of dice. Only the woman refuses to acknowledge the basic bloody rules of the game. A man, he'll cheat you - but he'll do it honestly. He'll use loaded dice, so that you think you're losing by chance. And if you aren't clever enough to spot what he's doing, then maybe he deserves to take your coin. And that's that. A woman, though, she'll sit down to that same game and she'll smile, and act like she's going to play. Only when it's her turn to throw, she'll toss a pair of her own dice that are blank on all six sides. Not a single pip showing. She'll inspect the throw, then she'll look up at you and say, 'clearly I just won.' Now, you'll scratch your head and look at the dice. Then you'll look up at her, then down at the dice again 'But there aren't any pips on these dice' you'll say." 'Yes there are,' she'll say. 'And both dice rolled a one.' 'That's exactly the number you need to win,' you'll say. 'What a coincidence,' she'll reply, then begin to scoop up your coins. And you'll sit there, trying to wrap your head 'bout what just happened. And you'll realise something. A pair of ones isn't the winning throw! Not when you threw a six on your turn. That means she needed a pair of twos instead! Excitedly you'll explain what you've discovered. Only then do you know what she'll do?" "No idea, Mat." "Then she'll reach over and rub the blank faces of her dice. And then, with a perfectly straight face, she'll say, 'I'm sorry. There was a spot of dirt on the dice. Clearly you'll see they actually came up as twos!' And she'll believe it. She'll bloody believe it!" "Incredible." "Only that's not the end of it!" "I had presumed it wouldn't be Mat." "She scoops up all of your coins. And then every other wonam in the room will come over and congratulate her on throwing that pair of twos! The more you complain, the more those bloody women will join in the argument. You'll be outnumbered in a moment, and each of those women will explain to you how those dice clearly read twos, and how you really need to stop behaving like a child. Every single flaming one of them will see the twos! even the prudish woman who has hated your woman from birth - since your woman's granny stole the other woman's granny's honeycake recipe when they were both maids - that woman will side against you." "They're nefarious creatures indeed." "By the time they're done, you'll be left with no coin, several lists worth of errands to run and what clothing to wear and a splitting headache. You'll sit there and stare at the table and begin to wonder, just maybe, if those dice didn't read twos after all. If only to preserve what's left of your sanity. That's what it's like to reason with a woman, I tell you."

Mat Cauthon to Talmanes

And you did it. A lot

Talmanes to Mat

Well, tie a kerchief on my face and call me Aiel.

Anonymous soldier serving the rebel Aes Sedai under Gareth Bryne

A woman in white stood atop the rubble a short distance away, a massive halo of power surrounding her, her arm outstretched toward the fleeing soldiers, her eyes intense. The woman stood like vengeance itself, the power of saidar like a storm around her. The very air seemed alight, and her brown hair blew from the wind of the open gap in the wall beside them. Egwene al'Vere.

Adelorna Sedai, Captain General of the Green Ajah in the White Tower

But she was a fount of Power, drawn from deep within the fluted rod in her hands, channeled through a group of novices and Accepted hiding in the room behind, bound to her in circle. Egwene was part of the fires that burned in the Tower, bloodying the sky with their flames, painting the air with their smoke. She almost seemed not a being of flesh, but one of pure Power, sending judgment to those who had dared bring war to the Tower itself. Blasts of lightning stormed from the sky, the clouds churning above. Fire sprouted from her hands.

Egwene al'Vere, rebel Amyrlin Seat

We can't go back, Mat. The Wheel has turned, for better or worse. And it will keep turning, as lights die and forests dim, storms call and skies break. Turn it will. The Wheel is not hope, and the Wheel does not care, the Wheel simply is. But so long as it turns, folk may hope, folk may care. For with light that fades, another will eventually grow, and each storm that rages must eventually die. As long as the Wheel turns. As long is it turns....

Thom Merrilin, quoting an ancient song

[Aviendha] didn't trust change. It couldn't be spotted or stabbed; it was more silent than any scout, more deadly than any assassin. No, she'd never trust it, but she would accept it.

I doubt you can understand the magnitude of the stupidity in your statement.

Moridin to Rand al'Thor

I don't know. They could put up a warning sign or something. Hello. Welcome to Hindstrap. We will murder you in the night and eat your bloody face if you stay past sunset. Try the pies. Martna Maily makes them fresh daily."

Mat Cauthon

The more tragic things get, the more I feel like laughing.

Mat Cauthon

Light, it's been too long.

Rand al'Thor

I thought you saidar-ed it.

Mat Cauthon

At the end of time, when the many become one, the last storm shall gather its angry winds to destroy a land already dying. And at its center, the blind man shall stand upon his own grave. There he shall see again, and weep for what has been wrought.

Although some believe that Jordan is the author of this, it is in fact a Japanese proverb (義は険しい山よりも重く、死は大鳥の羽よりも軽い) best known for its use in the Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors. It is itself a variation of a Chinese proverb that can be traced back at the very least to Han dynasty writer Sima Qian, Death can be as heavy as Mount Tai, or lighter than a goose feather (死有重於泰山,輕於鴻毛).